Vegan and Gluten-Free Black Bean Brownies

This recipe is from Chocolate Covered Katie and it is probably the best black bean brownie that I have found yet! The black beans make the brownie super moist and add some sort of healthiness to them? Maybe? And the chocolate chips inside them make them super melty a couple days later even. I meant to make this vegan but accidentally used non-vegan chocolate chips…those vegan chocolate chips are very easy to find, just make sure you don’t make the same mistake that I did! Thanks Katie from Chocolate Covered Katie, for this amazing recipe. She has a ton of other great vegan, healthy, gluten-free recipes if you’re interested in checking out her blog. Here is the recipe (I didn’t change anything and they turned out great) :

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine all the ingredients into a food processor except the chocolate chips. (if you bake a lot, this seems weird but trust me, it works fine). Blend it really well until it is completely smooth (you can do this in a blender but it works better in a food processor for sure).

Next, stir in the chocolate chips and then spread the batter into a greased 8×8 pan.

If you want, you can sprinkle chocolate chips on top of the batter for extra chocolatey-ness!

Cook the brownies for 15-18 minutes (I think I did mine for about 22 minutes). Then let them cool for about 10 minutes before you try to cut them.

Katie says that if they seem undercooked, you can stick them in the fridge overnight and they will firm up. I didn’t do this and I found they were fine after cooking them for a little longer but it might work just as well! Yields about 9-12 brownies (depending on how you cut them…could make just one 😉 )

The Ultimate Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

This next recipe is actually adapted from Nom-Yourself Recipe Book – “Nom Yourself: Simple Vegan Cooking”. These are by far my favourite chocolate chip cookies ever, they’re especially the best to give to those who are skeptical about vegan food. The recipe is taken right from her book and I would definitely suggest buying her cook book. All the recipes are to die for. Anyway, heres the recipe, I did not really change much from the original.

Ingredients

3/4 cup Vegan Margarine (ie Earth Balance)

1 1/3 cup Cane Sugar

1 tbsp Vanilla Extract

1 tbsp Milled Flax Seeds

3 tbsp Hot Water

2 cups Unbleached Flour

1/2 tsp Sea Salt

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

1 16oz. bag of Vegan Chocolate Chips

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Mix the margarine, sugar & vanilla extract in a large bowl until smooth.

3. In a small bowl, whisk the ground flaxseeds and hot water for about 30 seconds. Then pour into the sugar mixture.

4. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and cream of tartar until it is well combined.

5. Slowly mix the flour mixture into the sugar mixture until there are no more flour clumps.

6. Now fold in the chocolate chips until well mixed through.

7. Lightly line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, then scoop tablespoon sizes of cooking dough onto a tray, leaving about an inch between each cookie.

8. Bake for 9 minutes. Let them cool on a cookie rack for at least 15 minutes.

**Tip From Nom Yourself: The cookies will still be mushy when you take them out of the oven. You can either use a metal spatula to take them off the cookie tray, or just leave them on the cookie tray until they can be easily transferred.

This cookies are to DELICIOUS. You definitely will have to control yourself on trying not to eat the whole batch. ENJOY!! 🙂